First leg (Sucre to Santa Cruz) Completed

This is a very quick post to say that I have arrived safely in Santa Cruz. I´ve booked into a cheap hotel across from the bus station. That gives me somewhere to catch up on my sleep, safe luggage storage and access to shower and bathroom.

The buses to Paraguay go at 8:00pm in defiance of Lonely Planet´s promise that they set off in the early morning. So I only get 12 hours in Santa Cruz and won´t see anything of the city.

The ´bus cama´ with super-reclining seats set off about 15 mins late and almost immediately the road began to descend steeply. Sucre itself is well below 3,000 masl so it seemed low after weeks at altitude. I have now well and truly left the Altiplano behind. Santa Cruz is only about 450 masl.

It was hardly more than two hours before we took the first of three promised stops. Several trucks and buses were parked in a village that clearly was well organised to cater for hungry travellers. What was most noticeable was that it was warm outside, even though the sun had set at least an hour before. It felt quite Mediterannean.

One of the other buses was changing a wheel. This is getting to be a commonplace. I don´t think I´ve ever seen a bus in NZ changing a wheel beside the road.

10 minutes later I was our turn. I can tell you exactly what a bus tyre sounds like when it blows out. It is as loud as a demonstrator´s firework but there is a different texture to the noise. About half the passengers got off, mostly the men, to stand around and deliver invisible repair-rays to those actually fixing the problem.

And the routine for dealing with a blown front tyre is first to rearrange the double wheels at the back. This was done with an efficiency that argued long practice. The other bus kindly stopped and, I think, offered assistance. This was declined so, after expressions of sympathy, it continued on its way. Getting the wheel with useless tyre off proved more troublesome. It seemed to take a very long time to get the jack properly positioned. This involved the loader crawling under the bus and finding the jack point by feel and the light of passengers´ torches. A good light should be part of the tool kit.

It was fascinating to observe just how much traffic was using the road after dark. It was mostly trucks, with an occasional bus thrown in. No private vehicles.

It is either the recine-right-back seats or the neck cushion that I finally remembered to carry with me on the bus, but I actually slept for two good stretches. During periods of wakefulness there wasn´t much to see in the fringes of the headlight beams, but I gathered that the vegetation was changing. There were more trees and different cactuses. I didn´t see much evidence of cultivation, but this may not have been representative.

When I woke for the last time, after dawn, there was a lot of agriculture and it looked well organised and prosperous, unlike most of what I saw on the Altiplano. And it is substantially tropical, with some plantations of palm or banana trees. Alongside the road thebuildings were almost continuous. We went through a few town centres before Santa Cruz started in earnest. It is a large city, and the route skirting the metropolis to the bus terminal took a long time to navigate.

My two periods of sleep must have covered the two other stops, so my poor bladder had to cope for over 12 hours. And it did so very well, I´m pleased to say.

So here I am. All the companies taking passengers into Paraguay favour more cramped seats but with an on-board bathroom. They also serve food along the way.

As mentioned in the last post, I don´t kow when I will next have Internet access.

And don´t worry about me. There are uncertainties ahead, but no physical danger. If there is no guide to show me the Chaco, I can´t go. It´s as simple as that. I will see what I can by local bus and then proceed to Conception, where there are banks and Internet cafes and river boats!